Saturday, 29 March 2008

I’ve just returned from a thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing trip to Madeira, an island full of wonderfully friendly and generally sensible European people.

While there, I discovered that Madeiran farmers cultivate and export dwarf bananas, something that is not particularly surprising. However, what is surprising is that these bananas have been deemed by the European Ministry of Silliness as “too small” to be exported to the rest of Europe. All the bananas that leave Madeira’s shored are destined only for mainland Portugal. These delicious bananas will never make it to England because according to EU regulations, the “minimum length permitted is 14cm”. Have you ever heard of anything so absurd?

I would just like to ask one question; who on earth makes ridiculous decisions such as this?

It does make me wonder whether there really is a ministry where a bunch of bureaucrats meet to consider the most bizarre regulations they can get away with. Haven’t they got anything better to do? What is the justification for such a weird directive?

There are a lot of urban legends about idiotic EU rulings but frankly I consider this particular regulation to be utterly crazy; bananas in fact!